Nawaz Sharif, Daughter Maryam Nawaz on Their Way Back to Pakistan

PML-N workers protest outside a police station

Deanna Wagner
|
14 July, 2018, 05:40

Pakistan's former Prime Minister who was arrested late on Friday has been shifted to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, while his daughter Maryam Nawaz was sent to Seihala Rest House, declared as temporary sub-jail.

Supporters of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), who were on their way to Lahore airport to receive Nawaz Sharif, were detained by the Pakistan Police.

Earlier, media reports and an official of the Civil Aviation Authority had said their plane was diverted to Islamabad to avoid any law and order situation in Lahore as a large number of the PML (N) workers were heading in hundreds of vehicles to the city to cheer up their leader.

There was barbed wire across some roads leading to Lahore airport on Friday and barricades at the roadside ready to close off main boulevards should crowds start to gather.

Imran said that neither Nawaz Sharif or Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari can eliminate corruption, and both have only indebted the nation with exorbitantant foreign loans.

'Why is Lahore under siege?

Adding to the tension surrounding the upcoming poll, a suicide bomber hit an election rally of a regional party in southwestern Pakistan, killing 85 people.

Khan, who hopes to become the next prime minister, condemned Friday's attack.

The country's media regulator warned local news channels to abstain from airing statements "by political leadership containing defamatory and derogatory content targeting various state institutions specifically judiciary and armed forces", the regulator said in a statement. The pair, who were sentenced in absentia on corruption charges last week, were taken to custody soon after their arrival.

Sharif is returning to Pakistan one week after an anti-corruption court sentenced him to 10 years on corruption charges and sentenced his daughter to seven years in prison.

A Pakistani official says a bomb has exploded near the election rally of a politician running for a seat in a provincial legislature in the southwest.

The military denied the accusations, saying their assistance in carrying out the elections was requested by Pakistan's election commission.

They are returning from London ahead of crucial elections in Pakistan on July 25. The army will deploy 350,000 security personnel to polling stations throughout the country on election day.

Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), political party, holds his tasbih, while having tea on a plane on his way to a campaign rally ahead of general elections in Sialkot, Pakistan July 12, 2018.

Sharif was ordered jailed in a case stemming from 2016 Panama Papers revelations that showed they owned the apartments through off-shore companies.

In a landmark verdict, the Sharifs were convicted by an anti-corruption court for not being able to prove a legitimate source for funds used to buy a set of upscale London apartments.

The elder Sharif had been dismissed as prime minister last July, after the Supreme Court ruled that he had lied on a parliamentary wealth declaration.

PML-N has also been shaken by internal divisions.

"(The) public is demanding accountability of corrupt leaders of political parties", Khan said.